During a recent visit to Dr. Mehmet Oz's talk show, Montell Williams revealed that he began battling emotional eating after undergoing a double mastectomy. The television personality had suffered a torn pectorals muscle that was mistakenly diagnosed as breast cancer when he was 19 years old.
"People have heard me talk about this on air," he said, referring to his mastectomy and clinical depression. "It's been recently diagnosed as emotional lability, which means that I can't control my ups and downs ... and when I feel that way, and I'm at home, I sneak food."
In 1999, Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative autoimmune disease that also causes mood swings and depression. Links between mood and eating have been made as researchers have found that hormones in our stomachs communicate directly with our brain.
His story also helps bring attention to eating disorders within the African-American community. There's the notion that it does not hit as hard among Blacks, but a 2009 study found that African-American girls were 50 percent more likely to be bulimic than white girls.
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